Courtesy: Solomon Star News

KURUS SET TO DEFEND TITLE

By Philip Lilomo

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

THE country’s futsal squad Kurukuru are in top form to defend their Oceania title in two week’s time in the OFC Futsal Championship in Fiji.

Today, the boys head into their second friendly at the Multipurpose Hall against an equally competitive Honiara select side.

This starts at 3pm.

The friendly matches are part of Kurukuru’s preparation for the Oceania Futsal Championship to be hosted in the Vodafone Arena in Suva, Fiji.

The Oceania defending champions will go into today’s friendly with confidence after defeating the Honiara select in their first friendly last Saturday 5-2.

The Honiara select side, made up of familiar names in the eleven a-side mode plus some drop outs from the Kurukuru squad, will provide a real test for Kurukuru as they prepare to defend their Oceania title.

Kurukuru will leave the country for Fiji next Friday ahead of the championship on July 7.

The OFC Futsal Championship will be played in a round-robin format with New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and hosts Fiji all set to compete in the prestigious event from 6-10 July.

According to reports from OFC, Kurukuru will go into the Championship as hot favourites to win with 11 of their 12 squad members being part of the 2008 winning team that went on represent Oceania at the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil last year.

Kurukuru’s new head coach Dickson Kadau, who took over the job from Victor Waii, told OFC his players have undergone intensive training in recent weeks.

“We train six days a week and the focus areas in our sessions are mainly on speed, strength and the team’s defense,” he said.

The preparation of Kurukuru was also boosted with the presence of OFC Futsal Development Officer Scott Gilligan, who haf spent some time in the country this month working with the team as part of the Win in Oceania in which Gilligan is also the Project Manager.

According to Gilligan, Kurukuru have improved a lot since the World Cup last year in Brazil.

Scott Gilligan, a former Australian Futsal international who also coached the Australia national men’s side, told OFC “The boys have improved a lot from where they were during the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil,”

“When I came to Honiara early this year for a futsal coaching course under the ‘Win in Oceania’ development programme, I left a training plan with them and what I’ve seen is incredible progress,” he said.

The OFC Futsal Championship Fiji 2009 marks the sixth time Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has staged the event.

Since its inception in 1992, the championships have been held every four years as part of the qualification process for the FIFA Futsal World Cup tournaments.

Fiji 2009 marks the first year of the new annual format for the championship which shows OFC’s commitment to developing futsal by providing regular competition for Oceania’s top teams.

The popularity of futsal – an indoor form of football played with five players per side and a weighted ball – continues to grow throughout the region as a number of OFC’s eleven member associations start to develop domestic competitions to support the game







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com